Abstract
In this present chapter declareth the Lord unto John and unto his faithful servants by him the degree, estate, and condition of his true-believing church, now after he hath afore lively described the bestial church of antichrist and of his horned spirituality by the afore-named two monstrous beasts. And this is that his lovers should know what they be which are of his household and what an helper they have of him in the midst of their adversities, to the comfort of their souls. And though they be here among those raging tyrants in terrible agonies and pains, persecutions and troubles, he is never absent from them nor will not be till he hath rewarded them with unspeakable joys.
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Notes
- 1.
this is that = i.e., the chapter is written in this way so that.
- 2.
The 1548 woodcut (placed after the word ‘song’ in text #13) depicts the lamb on Mount Zion.
- 3.
bolden] 1545, 1570; holde 1548, 1550.
- 4.
seventh] Christmas; viii 1545, 1548, etc. As Christmas notes, the text should read ‘seventh’, because this is the chapter in which the 144,000 are discussed earlier.
- 5.
after = like.
- 6.
stomach = spirit, courage, valour, bravery (OED n. 8a). Bale also uses ‘stomach’ in this sense in Oldcastle 26b (cited in OED).
- 7.
it] 1545; is 1548.
- 8.
token = to mark with a sign or significant mark (OED 3).
- 9.
Jn 14.6.
- 10.
become = to come, to arrive (OED v. 1, obsolete).
- 11.
lives] 1545, 1550, 1570, Christmas; synnes 1548.
- 12.
living] 1545, 1550, 1570; synninge 1548; sinning Christmas.
- 13.
muster = a pattern, specimen, example, sample (OED n. 1 5).
- 14.
From…unmarried = i.e., The blind papists derive (fetch) a supporting argument for their wifeless chastity from this place of moral degradation, and they further derive that no one who does not follow their example of being unmarried is a true follower of Christ.
- 15.
fly] 1548; fle 1545.
- 16.
The 16th-century texts spell this name ‘Clemens’, but Bale is referring to Clement, a coworker of Paul mentioned in Phil 4.3.
- 17.
rest = repose.
- 18.
created] 1570; create 1545.
- 19.
be] 1550; by 1545.
- 20.
hath] 1550; haue 1545.
- 21.
that = so that.
- 22.
that = what.
- 23.
Deut 32.22.
- 24.
Ps 11.6.
- 25.
cleareth] 1545, 1570; declareth 1548; deliuereth 1550, 1550(W); delivereth Christmas. ‘Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all’ (Ps 34.19).
- 26.
themselves as the ministers of God in much patience] 1545, 1570; them pacience 1548; them in patience 1550, 1550(W). The missing words (‘selves’ through ‘much’) are the equivalent to a full line in the 1545 text. This serves as evidence that (1) the 1548 text was set directly from the 1545, and not from a separate manuscript, and thus the compositor skipped a line; (2) the 1550 and 1550(W) texts also derive from the 1548 printing; and (3) the 1570 was set independently from the 1545. See Introduction 23–4.
- 27.
and their lot among the holy ones] 1545, 1570; om. 1548, 1550, 1550(W), Christmas. This is also a complete line in the 1545 text and is a parallel instance to the one described in the previous note.
- 28.
See Lk 2.25–38.
- 29.
garner = a storehouse for corn, grainery (OED).
- 30.
juror] one who brings false witness or a false presentment (against the innocent, or in favour of the guilty); a slanderer, backbiter; an oppressor; a covetous man (OED 2, obsolete). Bale also uses this term in John Baptist’s Preaching (l. 88) and Three Laws (l. 847).
- 31.
have] 1570; hath 1545.
- 32.
frank = an enclosure, esp. a place to feed hogs in; also, the process of fattening animals (OED n. 2 1). This compound is the first instance under n. 2 2, obsolete.
porkling = a fat, greedy, or coarse person (OED n. 1, obsolete).
‘Gulf’ in this sense derives from a whirlpool that swallows up everything and came to be used figuratively for a voracious appetite (OED n. 3b, citing 1566 as the first instance of this meaning).
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Minton, G.E. (2013). The Fourteenth Chapter. In: Minton, G. (eds) John Bale’s 'The Image of Both Churches'. Studies in Early Modern Religious Tradition, Culture and Society, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7296-0_17
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